


How the Heart Feels

by astraev



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-04
Updated: 2005-12-04
Packaged: 2017-10-19 08:01:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/198665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astraev/pseuds/astraev
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><i>A/N: Written for my friend Alex's birthday. One shot. </i></p><hr/><p></p>
    </blockquote>





	How the Heart Feels

**Author's Note:**

> _A/N: Written for my friend Alex's birthday. One shot._
> 
> * * *

_Why does his smile make her heart itch?_ Hermione thinks as she pinches his earlobe.

"Ouch, why did you do that?" cried Harry softly. The common room was mostly deserted, but there were NEWT students here and there finishing their impossible assignments. Hermione, of course, was already finished. And Harry had done what he dared.

"Because you took the last chocolate frog!" said Hermione, aware that the smile she used was just a smile enough to make a boy look twice.

"You didn't say anything when I picked it up." He protested, waving the hand that had caressed the frog. God, Hermione wondered what it would be like to be the frog, and melt in Harry's mouth.

She coughed, and leaned away from him. "Because I didn't want it then." She moved closer the fire, hitched the blanket up to her shoulders.

"When do you think Ron will be back from his detention?" asked Harry, and she suddenly felt very, very guilty.

She _knew_ why Ron made her heart soar. She felt that way because he knew all of her worries about her sister and her parents, because he trusted her with his secrets – his fears and his shortcomings. They never said the L-word because it was dangerous, but she knew the feel of his back and he knew what made her tick.

But Harry still made her heart itch.

"I don't know," said Hermione. She bit her lip and reached across the arms of the chair and his lap for the table where the sweets had been piled. Her hand jerked back and forth in the wrappers. "Is anything left?"

He reached into the pile and pulled out a pumpkin pasty. He dragged it up her forearm, and when he reached the crook of her elbow she swung her other hand around to catch it when he dropped it into her palm. "Did he say if he knew what he was doing?"

"You know Snape," said Hermione. "He probably stock-piled Neville's cauldrons from first year on and is now having Ron scrub them." She sat up straight, and pulled apart the pasty wrapper. "But I wanted _chocolate_." She wrinkled her nose.

"There may be chocolate Botts, but I don't think you want to take that risk," said Harry. Hermione made a noise of agreement as she stuffed half the pasty into her mouth, and let the other half hang out. She couldn't keep up the pretense that her flush was from cold. She pushed her fleece blanket away. She crossed her arms in front of her and took the hem of her jumper and lifted it over her head, careful with the neck-hole to keep pasty off of it.

Now she was quite comfortable in her spaghetti strap tank top. But she shivered when she saw his eyes rake across her sternum. When she looked at herself in the mirror, after a shower in the prefect bathroom, those little hollows on either side of her neck always made her feel sexy, and it warmed her to know that Harry thought so too.

Harry looked and his watch and Hermione liked to think that there was some color in his cheeks that he was hiding. "You're probably right about the punishment. We probably can't expect him for a while."

"I don't mind waiting with you," she said. She smiled a half smile. She felt as if she was betraying something, she tried to scratch her heart itch.

"You're not bad company yourself." He smiled at her.

Hermione was back to square one.


End file.
